Councillors' accountability for ethical and legal behaviour

Ethical and legal behaviour

As a councillor, you must always act with integrity and abide by the law in carrying out your local government responsibilities. This is made clear in both the Local Government Act 2009 and the City of Brisbane Act 2010 and their supporting regulations.

As a councillor, you are accountable for your behaviour. You should conduct yourself in an appropriate, professional and ethical way that meets the obligations set out in Chapter 6, part 2 of both the Local Government Act 2009 and the City of Brisbane Act 2010.

You were elected as a councillor to serve and represent the interests of the whole community in your local government area. It is important that residents are confident that their council makes its decisions in the overall public interest and not to benefit councillors, their relatives or a particular group in the community.

For this reason the local government legislation sets out specific requirements for councillors and local governments about:

Councillors' responsibility

It is the responsibility of each councillor to ensure that you have properly considered the relevant facts and issues when making a decision about the proper course of action to take in a particular situation.

You may seek advice from a variety of sources including:

a legal practitioner

Crime and Misconduct Commission publications available on its website:

On 7 September 2017, the Minister for Local Government and Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships issued a direction ( 680 KB) to the Mayor of the Fraser Coast Regional Council, ordering remedial action.